Field of the Development
The disclosure relates to the field of automatic feeding and sorting of items. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to the automatic shingulation, singulation, and sorting of articles from a bulk stack of articles.
Description of the Related Art
Articles, such as items of mail, are frequently provided in bulk and must be sorted into individual articles or items for processing or routing. Sorting these articles into individual articles, or singulation, may be done automatically by placing a bulk stack of articles into an article feeder. The singulated articles may then be sorted into various sorter windows. Sorters operate at high speeds and produce available sorter windows for insertion of articles at a high rate. An article feeder may not properly sort the articles into the various sorter windows if the article feeder operation and the sorter are not synchronized with one another. Furthermore, damage to the articles and selection of more than one article in the singulation process, or double feeding, may occur if the article feeder is not configured to operate at a high rate. Accordingly, systems and methods are needed for automatic shingulation, singulation, and sorting of articles from a bulk stack of articles to maximize article feed rate and minimize damage and double feeding.